This invention relates to the construction of conveyors in general and, in particular, to a new and useful conveyor chute for a chain scraper conveyor.
The invention relates more particularly to a conveyor chute for chain scraper conveyors, comprising, chute sections joined to each other with clearance for free motion and guide planks for the material conveyed, with the chute sections having chute-connecting elements and the guide planks having pin segments on their inside in the area of the plank ends. Each two adjacent pin segments of guide planks to be joined to each other are assigned one common connecting plate, which has eyes separated from each other by a web for the accommodation of the two pin elements which are encircled by the connecting plate and which provide seating of the web between them with specified clearance for free motion on the other.
A guide plank of this type is known, in which the pin segments are designed as semi-cylinders and the plate eyes as semi-ovals, and in which the contact surfaces facing away from the web between the pin segments and the plate eyes are designed as cylindrical contact areas. Furthermore, the web is of a width to suit the clearance for free motion between the adjacent guide planks.
This guide plank has been successful per se, particularly because the guide plank connection alone is able to absorb the tensile, compressive and shear stresses in the course of the forward motion of the conveyor chute, thereby, reducing substantially the stresses attacking the chute connecting elements while still providing the clearance required between the chute sections and guide planks, respectively. However, the guide planks of this known embodiment can be regularly attached to the chute sections only after the latter have been assembled. This is unsatisfactory inasmuch as the chute sections and the guide planks must be transported separately to the underground site, for instance, and it is only there that the conveyor chute can be assembled.